Following up on the Patriot Act

San Francisco Chronicle

June 3, 2015

What happened: Congress rolled back government surveillance programs on Tuesday, limiting the reach of the Patriot Act and reintroducing some basic privacy protections for Americans. The new plan still allows government intelligence agencies to access Americans’ call records, but they’re required to get a court order before going to telephone companies.

What’s next:The debate over how the country can strike a balance between privacy rights and counterterrorism measures isn’t over. Technology companies have pledged to introduce new programs that will help consumers keep their data safe from the prying eyes of government. And we still don’t know the full extent of government intelligence surveillance powers — or programs.